Work on metro line between Bucharest’s main train station and airport to start in 2017

Work on the metro line between Bucharest’s main train station Gara de Nord and the Henri Coanda International Airport in the north of the capital is scheduled to start in 2017, according to a statement from Bucharest metro operator Metrorex. The Line 6 will be 14.2-km long and will comprise 12 stations, namely 1 Mai (which already exists), Pajura, Expozitiei, Montreal Square, Baneasa Train Station, Baneasa Airport, Tokyo, Washington, Paris, Brussels, Otopeni, I.C. Bratianu, Otopeni Airport. The total investment amounts to over RON 5.8 billion, VAT included (some EUR 1.2 billion). “To prepare and implement the project, a loan agreement was signed, in March 2010, between the Ministry of Finance and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), amounting to 41.87 million yen. The loan covers the consulting, design, and supervision services, and partially (30%) the value of works to be carried out for the resistance structure,” reads the Metrorex statement. The project is included in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan Bucharest-Ilfov (PMUD) 2016-2030, the project documentation currently pending approval by Government Decision. Transport minister Dan Costescu said in late-April this year that this metro line would only be ready in 2021. This might be a problem for Romania as the capital needs to have a direct link between from the airport to the city by 2020, when four football matches of the UEFA European Championship (Euro 2020) should take place in Bucharest. UEFA urges Romania to extend Bucharest’s metro to the airport Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com